


From the Sea

by sallyamongpoison



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Ambiguous Character Death, Cullen is a merman, M/M, Samson is a fisherman, mermaid!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 09:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8618362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sallyamongpoison/pseuds/sallyamongpoison
Summary: In which Cullen is a merman, Samson is a fisherman, and they form a rather unbreakable kind of bond.





	

The sea was smaller now. Once upon a time it was vast and wide and almost lonely. The sun filtered down from atop the waves so the water was bright and clear. The moon rose and set, pulled the tide where it wanted to, and there was nowhere he couldn’t go. There was no fear. There was loneliness, yes, a feeling like he could search the oceans for years over and never quite find the part of him that was missing. It was freeing, in a way. It also made him break away from the others, live a life alone and apart, and for a long time that was enough.

Then the humans came. They came with first their ships of wood that moved with the wind. They were a novelty, almost like a story, and on the rare occasion he had to see them up close was a marvel as well as a danger. Humans destroyed things they didn’t understand, but back then it happened so rarely that they came upon him it hardly mattered. But then…more. Ships the size of continents covered the top of the water and cast shadows in the water. Where before there seemed to be almost endless space to share it felt like now he was having to hide in his own world. They were everywhere. They saw and monitored everything. So many, and yet he still felt so alone.

Sometimes he tried. Those that fell in the water, kicked and thrashed as the air filled their bodies that weren’t meant for it, he tried to save them. His place arms would reach out, but were pushed away or worse out of fear. Humans destroyed what they didn’t understand, and he was something they didn’t understand. His kind, Cullen’s kind, were feared and hunted. They had to hide. They had to shy away. He did that well enough on his own, but there were so many of them now that it got harder and harder.

Humans were aggressive. Their ships dragged nets to trap and kill the other members of his ocan family. Spears, hooks, and huge metal weights were thrown down through his home. They were hard to avoid, and so sharp. Cullen hardly understood. He would never understand the need to conquer and spread like they seemed to need to do, and he’d been nearly caught more times than he wanted to admit.

Until he had been.

Something sharp ripped into his side as he swamp to escape the net, but it was so dark he could hardly see to avoid it. Another hook. Another metal line. Another thing to dodge and run from, but he’d been caught and pulled up anyway. He was bleeding, and the pain…oh, the pain. He’d never felt such pain, and before he knew it the water was under him and it felt like he’d tumbled onto the hardest stone imaginable. He could hardly breathe, and the gills at his neck fluttered. Of course he could breathe outside the water, though not well, but the pain in his side made it hard.

Then…a hand. A weathered and gnarled hand rested on top of his webbed one. It was cold from the wind, but under it there was something else. Something warm. Something Cullen had never felt. Wide amber eyes met dark ones, and Cullen took in the sight of a man like no other. Cullen had seen his share of humans, they’d all worn the same look of disbelief that this one wore now, but there was something else there too. It was the same feeling he got when storms raged above the water and made the seas roll and thrash like it was angry. Only this wasn’t angry. This was…this wasn’t at all like anything he’d known before.

The human, Samson, was one that hunted on the seas. He hunted fish, the same fish Cullen ate, and he shared some of his so that he might heal. Samson wrapped something tight and itchy around his side that slowed the bleeding, and on that empty boat Cullen stayed until the sun came out again. The water was never far away, and while he longed to be back in it there was something else he longed for. There was something in those dark eyes that matched what he knew shone in his when they looked at each other. It wasn’t a long time that they spent together, he and Samson, but it changed him. It changed Cullen to the point that he no longer wanted to be alone, and he didn’t want to be afraid.

He wasn’t alone after that. Not really. For years it seemed like Samson’s boat was never far from him, and whether or not that was his design or the human’s he didn’t mind it. They would talk sometimes, Cullen perched over the side with his arms folded so he was still half in the water, or they would just quietly enjoy that the other was there. Sometimes Samson would wonder out loud if he was dreaming, and sometimes Cullen wondered that too. His kind didn’t dream, though. So he could only hope that if this was a dream that it wouldn’t end. It didn’t have to, either, since it seemed they were content to always be within arm’s reach.

Until the storm came. Cullen could feel it coming. He knew it better than he knew himself and usually he took the time to warn the man. It was safer that way. This time was different though. This time…Cullen knew if Samson stayed out in it that it would be too strong. He should have warned him. He should have protected him. He didn’t, though, and as the boat sank beneath the waves Cullen went to his human. His friend. He went to Samson as he clung on to a piece of wreckage and touched his webbed hand again like he had that first time.

“I love you.”

Cullen heard the words as they filled with salt water and they both sank under the frothing sea. He’d never known love, not until he’d seen it in those dark eyes that first time. He’d known it then and knew it now. He loved his human, his Samson, and they clung to each other as the surface drifted further and further away.

He could keep him now. He could. They would never be alone again. They could live and love in a sea that had been endless once. It was endless now. It was endless like the night sky and stars were endless when they’d reflected in Samson’s dark eyes at night. They were endless like Cullen’s years were endless. He could keep him. They could keep each other. Love. Love could save them both.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a prompt sent to me as well as some lovely art done by @levaas on tumblr. You can also fine me on tumblr! @sallyamongpoison


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